Sixty nine years ago today, 100,000 U.S., British, and Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and began the battle to liberate Western Europe from the Nazi occupation that had brutalized the continent since 1940. Twenty-nine years ago today, Ronald Reagan gave one of the greatest speeches of his entire career in tribute to the heroes of D-Day. To this day, no tribute to the World War II generation has reached this level of eloquence.